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[ Editor in the Window ]

A Text File Roundup Review.

Notepad (++) is a fully functional (tabbed) text editor — that I can thoroughly recommend and fully endorse: it also comes with a standard spelling plugin, and of course other mime artists that are installed as standard. There are also many many more editor add-ons that are all available through the built in Plugin Manager.

** Tip: all you actually need to edit your sites HTML and PHP files, is just a simple text editor, and this fits the bill quite nicely.

Windows Notepad would do it, if you’re a masochist.

If you don’t want to wait and read his review, then the Notepad (++) download directory is here, but I wouldn’t click-away just yet: because there are many interesting pages on this website to read first, .. one on which is discussing a Notepad (++) plugin called ‘NppFTP’, which as the name suggests; is an FTP extension for the text editor itself, and this plugin alone shows the real power of Notepad (++), its open source.

Observational note from the pits, .. a full-on, all-singing, and all-dancing IDE environment; is not actually required to write and maintain your WordPress site, coupled with its plugins and themes, but one of them could possibly make it a little bit easier for a complete Noob.

That said: I have to warn you that hanging onto the tit for sustenance, whilst being warm comfortable and protected; doesn’t actually make you a better WordPress developer, the reverse in fact.

** Over time I’ve personally found that these fancy programs take more time in setting them up, then getting them to work and run: this, against their worthwhile in editing, .. what, (is at the end of the day), nothing more than simple text files, all residing on a glorified networked drive.

Case in point, VSCode (is OK and free to use), but all of my files have been created under the Windows OS, with the /n and /r tags making-up the text files inner markup: that are all reported as errors in the program, errors that need correcting before I can even edit the files, (unnecessary pain!) And that’s all before sorting out the PHP Parser Composer, which is a real mega pain in the bum to try and sort out.

Sublime Text is OK, but it’s also a licensed software product, (not that you actually need one), especially if you can ignore the popups, but at £80 to buy a user license for three years use (with updates), it’s far too expensive for me.

In actual fact, the Sublime Text Editor (IDE) looks a lot like Notepad (++), especially after you’ve learned how to open the Workplace window sidebar.

Click to the image view the bigger picture.

Click to the image view the bigger picture.

Notepad (++) also has a Plugin called, ..

NppFTP, and once set up with your ftp path, ftp username and ftp password : you press show FTP window in the plugins dropdown menu to get started. Whereby you can then enjoy the comfort of transferring your files from your favorite editor, and in simple saving them in the editor, uploads the modified file in the background.

Conclusion: all you really need is Notepad (++) to edit and ftp your files: text files that are all happily located on your Hosting Providers Servers.

Thanks for reading, Jessica: Praise be the ORI.